How to wear a bikini when you're over 40 (and ignore anyone who says you can't)

Reading the words ‘midlife bikini’ - as in a bikini worn by women in their forties and beyond - will strike you one of two ways. Either you’ll think: ‘You Must Be Joking’ or, ‘Yes? What About Them?’ and the funny thing is your response will have less to do with your body than your style.

Helen Mirren rocking a bikiniCredit:
Jason Fraser

I have a friend who is as skinny as a rope and a bit of tomboy – if looking fit was the only criteria of midlife bikini wearing, she’d be there - but as it happens she wears a navy one piece with a white trim. She thinks it’s more fresh and less try hard. I know fit women who have worn swimming costumes since their twenties, and others who let it all hang out in a bikini, their one rule being there’s nothing wrong with a bit of tummy so long as it’s tanned.

And now that I’m well past my bikini peak but still wearing one (you bet), I realise it’s not about yes or no, or time to put it away, but what makes you...